The Backlog Episode 8 (Day 52): Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel

And once again the backlog brings us another total history-less game from my collection. Like most of the games I still have downloaded on my 360, this was a free title I got when my brothers game me XBL as a b-day gift, but since it was on my console hard drive when the machine’s online capacity finally gave out, here it is… and I have to say, this one did not impress me at all.

Army of Two is basically a tag-team cover-shooter which will have either you and an AI or another player fighting your way through various missions against hoards of enemies in a modern times setting. Since I am the only one home, I had to settle for the AI, but at least I can say the guy was competant. In the hour I played, he only fell once. However, this game has a much bigger issue… the controls just plain feel janky, be it switching between walk or run, aiming, or even taking cover.

I know for a fact that this is not just because it’s played on a controller as Resident Evil: Revilations 2 felt tons better last week, but I couldn’t really place why, until I stopped trying. You see, this game is overly-auto aimed to the point that you really have to let go of the control and pretty much let the game take care of a lot of it for you. The moment I did that, the game got a lot smoother, aiming in a general direction and using the aim command to zoom in and correct severely for itself rather then try to do it myself and as a result fight the game. It still felt wrong though, at least coming from a mouse-aiming background.

Honestly, I can not recommend this game in particular, unless you do it for the kids. After all, sometimes its fun to play the not-so-great titles as a challenge to help the kids. Then go for it! It’s not so bad that you wont have fun playing with your fellow gamers… it’s just… well… clunky if you choose to try to do it yourself and not work with the game instead. But going it to just have fun… I think you can do better…